Monday, April 7, 2014

The Saga of the Design Wall

So, what is a design wall? Well, first of all, you know that a quilter needs his/her space, right? I have taken over all of what once was a dining room and a big room in the basement. Why? Because a quilter has a bunch of stuff. This stuff is not all fabric. It is sewing machines, cutting boards, big tables to hold quilts as they are being quilted, other big tables to provide space for making quilt sandwiches (not a food group), and for me, an area by the laundry room downstairs for my dyeing studio (yes, we call them all our studios).

My dining room sewing table, design wall behind.

So, in my dining room where I have my sewing machine and big quilting table, I decided I needed a design wall. A design wall is a place where you can put up blocks you have made and easily move them around to make the quilt design, hence design wall. The blocks have to stick and be easily moved around, so I went on a quest to find out what people made design walls of. What I found out was that blocks stick magically to batting, so the outside of my wall I made of batting. For the inside, I went to Menards and bought two one-inch sheets of insulation. So, since my wall was a standard height, I took the insulation and covered it, only to find out that "standard" is not standard, you have floors and rugs and ceiling treatments that make when you cover the "standard", you get a bit of a tight fit, as below:

About a six inch gap!

Curved away from the wall!

Should be flat against the wall!

So, down to the cutting board, remove the spray-basted batting and do what I should have done in the first place, measure and cut the board to the proper height. Well, I almost got it right; styrofoam is hard to cut with a kitchen knife so what you can't see is that there is a gap and the board is a bit wonky, but I am happy!

I now have my design wall in my design studio and am as happy as punch!

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About Me

Hi, my name is Kay Holm. While I have a lot of interests (don't we all), this blog is going to be primarily about my quilting and other work with textiles, and then a bit about my life, life in general, kids and of course my dogs. I guess we will see what I come up with!

Right now I am working on creating quilting patterns and hand dyeing fabric. My right brain is going strong even when my analytical side isn't. I am planning to sell some of the fabric.